How to find a new variety of tasty eating mushrooms.

1. Spend some spare time enjoying a read of other people's wild mushroom adventures.

2. Take the dogs out for a walk to the exact same spot you go at least three times a week.

3. Sit down for a rest on a tree stump.

4. Realise you have almost sat upon the mushroom you recently read about.

True story.

Although I managed to ID this as an oyster mushroom, I'm really not sure which oyster mushroom this is. Thankfully that doesn't matter as all oyster mushrooms are edible. All you really need is to be certain it is definitely an oyster mushroom and not it's poisonous habitat sharing vomit-fest imposter omphalotus nidiformis (Australia and Japan only). How do I know it wasn't this? Omphalotus nidiformis (the ghost fungus) glows in the dark in the presence of oxygen. These did not. Oyster mushrooms, if they have a smell, smell of anise and the ghost fungus has no scent. Check strong anise scent.

And what did it taste like?  

Bizarrely, reminiscent of lamb chops. Yes truly. It was a bit disconcerting to this 20 year vegetarian. Thankfully the taste similarity was only mild and I'm sure if it was taste tested head to head with real chops there would be very little similarity. It's a good eating mushroom, but we knew that already as oyster mushrooms are grown commercially all over the world.

But which oyster is it? 

There are a good half dozen or so and I narrowed it down to three -  Pleurotus ostreatus - the oyster mushroom, Pleurotus australis - the native Australian oyster/the brown oyster mushroom and Pleurotus populinus - the Aspen oyster mushroom.

Why the confusion? 

The stump it was growing on had been cut down to ground level and was fairly rotted. It was beyond my ability to ID the tree. Pleurotus populinus only grows on

the Populus species of trees ie aspen, poplar and there are plenty of these in the area. But there's also plenty of gum trees and conifers, which the other two varieties will grow on. So no help there.

The spore print was absolutely white and stayed that way after drying overnight. Pleurotus ostreatus has a white to greyish or lilac spore print, Pleurotus australis has a white drying to pale tan spore print and Pleurotus populinus has a white only spore print. Looking like Pleurotus populinus is a strong contender? Wait for it....

Colour. What did we have? Older mushrooms with dark tan cap, white flesh, creamy to yellowish tan gills.

Pleurotus ostreatus has a cap that can be pale brown to dark brown, white flesh, gills whitish or with a gray tinge, sometimes yellowish in age. Well that fits as these specimens were a bit older. Pleurotus australis has a cap that is pale grey-brown ageing to darker brown, white flesh, gills cream to brown. Um ok, that fits too. Pleurotus populinus has a cap that is whitish to pinkish gray or pale tan, without dark brown colorations. Ah we have a mismatch.

So after all considerations, my best guess is Pleurotus ostreatus. I'm happy to hear opinions from other mushroom hunters and I have plenty more pics available.

When will the vegetarian cookbook be published? It's a question that is asked of me quite a lot. The short answer is, when it is finished. The longer answer is I'm working on it as fast as I can and I hope to have it out by christmas. That may not be realistic. I don't know. 

I am finding that perfecting the recipes is the really time consuming and somewhat unpredictable stage. Mostly fun and tasty. However after the sixth test that still hasn't nailed it, the word tedious springs to mind. The recipe testing is integrated into our everyday eating. Most of our evening meals are cookbook tests. Getting a dish 'just so' is a thrill. Eating the same meal week after week is not. 

It takes time to cook at least several iterations of each recipe. Time to figure out what went wrong. Time to eat our way through the cooking. Time to be able to face the same dish again if the testing has been taking many attempts. Yes, recipes have been dropped for being too recaltricant. Yes there have been months where we took a break from any testing and enjoyed indulging in cheese and tomato on toast and *gasp* random meals.

Right now it is all systems go on the recipes to get Summer done and dusted.

Where is the cookbook at? As you may know already, the cookbook is divided into seasons and there are around 35 vegetarian recipes per season. Each recipe has an accompanying painting inspired by the dish. Autumn and Winter are done, both recipes and paintings. Summer is well underway with about three quarters of the recipes done and half the paintings as well. Spring has half it's recipes and a small handful of paintings completed. 

Getting there! And of course all the recipes so far are available from the page at www.wherefishsing.com/cookbook

 

Artist inspiration and artist influences. No biographies, dates or scholarly research here -  this is a personal response to the work of Mark Ryden by Australian artist Fiona Morgan.

Jessicas Hope

It is said that at times, Mark Ryden paints with a magnifying glass. You can certainly see the fineness of detail in his paintings. They are masterfully polished. While I do not aspire to be this obsessive over detail, I certainly admire the results and the discipline it takes to do this.

Fur Girl

While there are many fans of classical painting techniques, it seems to me that most of these people are recreating old style paintings as well. Part of what I like about Mark Ryden's work is his blending of time proven and masterfully accomplished classical painting technique with a very modern outlook. What century are we in anyway?

Incarnation

Like Joe Sorren, Mark Ryden's work is considered to be pop surrealism. It's full of contemporary cultural references. To say it's imaginative is an understatement. It's quirky and surreal. It's full of juxtapostitions. There's often a heavy dose of nostalgia and innocence.

Bjork

Little Boy Blue

The bit that I enjoy the most is the way his work references archetypes and myths (a bit of a recurring theme in the art I enjoy).

Santa Worm

The paintings themselves are beautiful. Full of subtle colour, soft lighting and idealised rendering. He seems to work in themes. Each painting in a show is very strongly linked to all the others and each show is quite distinct to every other show.

Tears

Although I haven't been to one of his shows, from what I can tell he (or whoever handles his publicity) is masterful at creating hype and getting fans to queue around the block for hours for the privilege of viewing the drama - almost theatre - of one of these tightly themed and immaculately presented shows. It's quite incredible.

Yoshi

More Mark Ryden links

official site: http://www.markryden.com/
http://www.facebook.com/Mr.Ryden
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Ryden

The Creative Cauldron series of posts explores and showcases the visual styles, techniques, attitudes, ideas, artists and paintings that have had the most impact on me. 

The rest of the series is accessible via the Creative Cauldron page. Have a meander if you please, and remember to check out my artworks on Flickr, and have an insider peek at life as an artist on Facebook.